Maybe you noticed. Karl-Anthony Towns is the butt of jokes on the internet after he boldly expressed his desire to leave an imprint on the game of basketball by the time his career as an NBA player is over.
The Timberwolves big man is getting laughed out of social media echo chambers because he expressed confident goals on The Pat Bev Podcast. Naturally, in Idiot Land, otherwise known as Twitter, a snippet of what Towns said has been shared without context to serve as a shot of adrenaline for the cyberbully epidemic.
“When my time’s up and I retire,” Towns began, “I feel like there’s going to be people who are going to say that I changed the game, and I’m going to be very appreciative of that.”
As soon as the quote made its way to Twitter, keyboard warriors started shooting.
Their insults went viral and TV talking heads weaponized them to further bash a 28-year-old man who in the past three years has lost numerous family members to COVID-19, including his mother, only to get up from each punch – with the world watching – to continue his journey as one of the most talented 7-footers in NBA history.
Towns did that while sacrificing his role to accommodate the arrival of Rudy Gobert and the ascension of Anthony Edwards. What has Towns done to deserve a public beheading like this?
.@HardawaySr reveals his 5 centers he believes are better than Karl-Anthony Towns 😅
1. Nikola Jokic
2. Joel Embiid
3. Bam Adebayo
4. Brook Lopez
5. Domantas Sabonis pic.twitter.com/SDGCLYhJWp— Breakfast Ball (@BrkfstBallOnFS1) June 15, 2023
Part of Towns’s quote you won’t see elsewhere: “You know what I like to say? When this is all over, there’s going to be kids coming up saying they’re going to be able to play a different way because I played in the NBA and did it a different way.”
Towns constantly says and does the right things. He’s a big brother to Edwards. He’s attempted to lead the most pathetic franchise in NBA history while witnessing the death of Flip Saunders, Jimmy Butler’s antics, and the game of musical chairs the Wolves have played with head coaches and general mangers.
Towns has nothing to be ashamed of. He’s given his all and produced enormous numbers on the floor to the point that he’s a two-time All-NBA player, All-Star, 3-point champion and quite literally one of the greatest shooting big men in NBA history.
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No one is debating if the 2022-23 season was a success for the Wolves. It was a failure fueled by the Gobert trade that tore apart the core of the roster and a calf injury so severe that it knocked Towns out for the majority of the season.
But look closer. Zoom in beyond the distasteful mockery of Towns. You know what you’ll find? The same tweeters reveling in the claim that the Timberwolves were NBA champion Denver’s toughest challenge in the playoffs.
For anyone in Minnesota, the Land of 10,000 Former Lakers Begging For Confident Athletes, to mock an elite athlete for expressing lofty aspirations to the world is pretty low.
